The hard drive has failed twice, & the motherboard once in 10 months. I now again cannot get into Bios Setup, getting a blue screen with a 3″ white vertical line in middle when I press F10 at startup. If I try to boot up with my recovery CD, I get a black screen with three 3″ white vertical lines in middle of screen. I tried booting up without hard drive attached, get the exact thing.

Tried pulling out power plug, holding power button on for about 2 minutes, then replacing power cord & starting up, same thing. Any suggestions? Thanks for any help. So far I’m still under manufacturers warranty, but that’s over in two months.”

Answer from venusgold

“First let me say: I’m sorry! How’d you end up with a Compaq? YUCK! I would strongly suggest fighting with their tech support for everything you can get from them. You DON’T have full versions of your software if it came from them. Further, you can have trouble in the future replacing any other parts that go out unless you go through them. So, given the history, I think I’d demand an extended warranty. It sounds like you got one lemon of a computer from them, and I’m sure you paid a pretty penny for it.

The best advice I can give is keep going up the chain of command. If they seem reluctant to grant an extended warranty, then ask to speak to that person’s supervisor. If that doesn’t work, move up the chain agian. I would keep at it until they either extended the warranty, or replaced the computer (with a new warranty).

GOOD LUCK! ”

Answer from mezron

“One thing I’d look at is the quality of the electricity coming from the wall outlet. Is your computer plugged in to a UPS (battery back up)? Is there machinery like an old drill press or maybe an old refrigerator plugged into the same circuit (not necessarily same outlet) as the computer? I dislike Compaq as much as anyone but I do have to say the quality of thier parts are usually pretty decent. You’re having an awful lot of components fail which is unusual. ”

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